What women were up to while men got into the history books

Women have been around a while. You wouldn't know it looking at much of the popular history content out there.

I too will happily listen to six hours of The Rest Is History in a single day. I devoured a multi-volume Napoleon biography as an 8-year-old until he became everything he'd fought against and I threw away the book, swearing I'd never again believe in a politician. I have watched Band of Brothers enough times to have my own dreams of Bastogne on cold winter nights. I love all that stuff. It's just so... male.

I've consumed history books and podcasts most of my life, but I am frustrated at how few people like me I see in them. Great men leading armies aren't uninteresting, but they're not the totality of human experience. Academic women's history blew up from the 1970s, but popular history is still miles behind. Publishing is starting to catch up; newsletters and podcasts are virtually non-existent. So like any writer would, when I couldn't find the media I wanted, I decided to create it myself.

That's What She Did looks at the half of history we never learned in school. It is a feminist history, of course, but it's not a history of feminism. It's a history of our foremothers. Women's history is not just the story of our emancipation; it's all the history of the world, with female characters plucked out of the shadows for once. It's the ordinary and the extraordinary. And it's more than a few queens and suffragettes.

Meet your host

I'm Isabelle Roughol. I'm a journalist, media executive and public historian based in London who's moved around the world a lot. You can learn more about my complex portfolio career at www.isabelleroughol.com, where I also write about media. I'm currently completing a Master's degree in Public History & Heritage at Birkbeck College, University of London (expected graduation: 2025). I hold a Bachelor's of Journalism (class of '08) from the University of Missouri-Columbia, in the United States.

I am French and British, with a hint of American influence. That's the history I know and have access to. This newsletter and podcast will mostly cover this part of the world, sometimes a bit further afield. This project has no pretence of exhaustiveness or complete representativity. I only write what I know.

The information you'll find here is sourced from primary research in archives, academic journals and other media that is itself well sourced. I'm pretty darn careful about that. This is not peer-reviewed but it could be. If something is up for debate, I'll mention that. Articles offer further reading suggestions, though I don't footnote the way I do in my academic writing because I'd lose half of you. If you want a more complete bibliography, reach out. If you spot an error, seriously, reach out.

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